So I broke down and bought Pact Magic 1 & 2 from Radiance House, as well as the Legendary Classes: Covenant Magic & More Covenant Magic from Purple Duck Games, and I absolutely LOVE the thematics of both, and the idea of combining them...however, the Master of the Occult alternate class detailed in More Covenant Magic was...a downer,imo.
This class lets you bind 1 spirit as a binder of equal level, at the cost of giving up 6 "feats" ala spirit boon, some of which are extremely flexible. While I understand there is a need/want to be balanced, I wish there was a way to mesh these 2 classes so you could get most of the really COOL bells and whistles of both (like the Occultists getting to bind multiple spirits at once and the Mediums Spirit Boons).
The big question is HOW to balance such things to well...have one's cake and eat it too. What I envision is maybe a slowed down version of both classes progression melded together, or perhaps limiting the number of spirit boons you can have by the number of spirits you can pact bind, but I must confess I have never attempted to truly homebrew a class that didn't appear flat out broken.
Both base classes are detailed on www.d20pfsrd.com under the 3rd party class section for those of you who don't have access to the books or PDF's. I plan on taking a stab at making a homebrew myself, but I figured I'd see if anyone else had already done so, as well as fishing for compliments/criticisms and additional ideas.
Finally, yes, I know I could just wait for a game where gestalts were allowed, but my group does those rarely, and tends to make such games quicky type campaigns...I'm hoping to make an idea with more...staying power.
Cheers!
